Search

Whenever we have featured Mega Emotion in the past, we have always been taken aback by the sheer ferocity of their sound. Huge, cacophonous electronics have battered us into submission, and we have graciously bent the knee in servitude to their frenetic chaos-pop. Today though, they have taken pity on us and provided a moment of delightfully light and airy pop respite.

With a hint of the Human League about it, “Laura” is a glorious late autumn sunset of a track. Balmy and tender, the synths drift effortlessly as Lisa and Jan’s vocals entwine and then harmonise with Iain’s. Even the machine gun beats are more gentle, pulsing rather than clattering as they have done in the past. It’s a moment of serenity, three minutes of blissful euphoria and contentment, full to bursting with love when everything comes good, before the inevitable tumultuous crash that follows.

Mind you, Mega Emotion are pretty damn good at soundtracking that crash as well, and we look forward to more of that in the future. They have promised to get more experimental soon, but for now we are getting lost in the dreamy, soft-focus sounds of “Laura”.

After what feels like an absolute age (two years) Norwich electro-noisemakers extraordinaire Mega Emotion are back, and this time they’ve brought a cowbell. And a baby.

That’s right.

A cowbell.

Not only is it a cowbell, but it is a cowbell on which is played a maddeningly catchy rhythm. One is surprisingly tricky to recreate using just your mouth when in an open plan office surrounded by colleagues who have no clue about what the hell you are trying to do. So we’re told.

The baby, aka the cutest Run DMC tribute act we’ve ever seen, features in the video below and is getting her rock on to the fuzzy caterwaul and grind of guitars, stomping driving beats and PiL era Lydon vocals. It’s a frenzied howl at the moon of a track, cacophonous and fervent while at the same time, pulsating and danceable. The electronics whir into life like the beginning of the robot uprising and the whole things just crashes headlong into you as your ears and soul are shaken and shuddered into submission.

With a whole new guttural layer to their chaos-pop sound, Mega Emotion are back and resistence is futile.

”OK Maybe OK” is taken from the forthcoming debut Mega Emotion album, ‘Move, Motherfucker’ and is a available now as a single from iTunes.

In the past, on one of the many occasions we’ve talked about the psychedelic electro freneticists Mega Emotion, we termed their music ‘chaos pop’. It was a term that felt right at the time as they blitzed us with their high octane blur of noise and colour. Times change though, people grow and develop and over time we find ourselves mellowing out a… Ah who are we kidding? Mega Emotion is back with a new single and video and it they are just as wonderfully anarchic and vibrant as ever.

The only hint of mellow really is the rather lovely harmonies from Lisa and Jan as Ian alternates between slightly intense and very intense in his vocals. The synths repeat and pulse like a strobe light set to ‘full on fit’ and the beat crashes as if played by a military drummer on acid.

There is a video too (which you can watch below) that features trippy patterns and fractals projected over them and onto the wall behind. It was made, brilliantly, by each band member taking it turns to ‘tit about’ in front of the camera. The result is, like Mega Emotion themselves, kinda crazy but very enjoyable.

Given our predilection for soft and floating synths, for delicate atmospheric sounds and haunting, emotive melodies, our simultaneous love for the cacophonous pop-energy of Mega Emotion may come as a surprise. That’s what life is all about though right? Variety and excitement; and Mega Emotion are very, very exciting.

Having blitzed us with the insanely infectious and vibrant “Brains” and then the blaring urgency of “City In Shapes”, the girl-boy-girl trio today release their debt EP, Fake Feelings and if your ears were reeling from those two songs, prepare to have them battered into glorious submission. Their frenetic combination of guitars, synths, electronics, frenzied vocals and crashing rhythms is perfectly showcased on the brash and in your face “Luck Dragon” (the surreal and marvellous video for which you can watch below).

Drag racer riffs roar and shudder, psychedelic flashes of digital colour pulsate and hypnotise as they chant away, like some distant cult of the mystical hedonists. ”The ring protects / The ring protects” they cry out. We’re not sure what it protects but it certainly isn’t your mind as that will be lost very quickly.

“Suck Gold” is a little less explosive but still full of colour and shapes. A grand bouncing ball of a beat makes its way through the city, unstoppable and destructive it frees aural prisoners as it goes. More angular riffs, more popping keys and electronic noodles and flourishes, all are liberated by the rhythm as it passes by and free to infiltrate your ears.

Each of the four tracks has pop at its very heart; the hooks are grand and undeniable and the melodies are smooth and infectious. They are just buried within this amazingly bold and powerful noise that is both jarring and scintillating. Mega Emotion is not like other bands out there, but then why would we want them to be. It’s all about the variety right?

When we first featured Mega Emotionlast year, we talked about how they would blow your pre-conceptions about sleepy Norwich completely out of the water. Now, having been tipped for big things not only by us but by the likes of John Kennedy (and he knows things he does) they are back to melt your mind once more with another stormingly frenetic piece of electronic chaos-pop.

Taken from their forthcoming debut EP Fake Feelings, “City In Shapes” is like eating popping candy that’s been made with dynamite rather than pressurised and gassified carbon dioxide (free science lesson for you there). It’s a blue light emergency of a track, whooping and blaring all over your face as it speeds along the streets, forcing other more sedate songs to the side of the road as it screams past. A heart mimicking kick drum arrests into tachycardic synths and guitars race with urgent vocals convulsing with energy and power. Doom laden riffs set in as the track whips to its destination, then harmonious vocals of peace give brief respite until its final violent silence.

It’s a death defying ride to salvation, or otherwise. Regardless, it’s another fantastic offering from a fast rising Norwich band coming to take over the world.

”City In Shapes” is available to buy now and a limited edition cassette of the ‘Fake Feelings’ EP will be released on 15 April.